Posts Tagged ‘Tim Blake Nelson’

The film fiend stalking the streets of Austin has many questions. How does an episode of Saturday Night Live come together? How can I blast off into space? Was Thomas Wolfe right when he said you can’t go home again? What does Lemmy’s carpet smell like? Unlike anybody outside Austin City Limits from March 12 to March 20, the fiend has the answers within reach. They’re among the topics tackled head-on a series of features and documentaries getting their premiere at the SXSW Film Festival this year.

At long last, this adaptation of Walt Whitman’s … [please read the IMDB synopses you’re meant to be ripping off first – Ed.] Oh. Ed Norton follows in the footsteps of Jeremy Irons, Christian Bale and Nicholas Cage, playing identical twins in a thriller written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson (O). Keri Russell and Melanie Lynskey are the lovelies who we hope get into the bed with the right Ed.

The Pennsylvania town inspired the Sherlock Holmes mystery “The Red-headed League” and is the home of some legendary bologna. But it takes a funeral to lure big city ad executive Josh Hopkins (Cougar Town) back to his hometown. There he bonds with his teenage cousin and has the plastic scales lifted from his bourgeois eyes in writer-director Ben Hickernell’s film. With Mary Beth Hurt.

There’s definitely a schizo streak running through this one. Edward Norton plays identical twins. One has managed to get out the holler and become an urbane banker. The other has remained proudly redneck. When he gets into some financial trouble, Ed conspires to get Ed back home. Tim Blake Nelson’s back-to-the-flyover country comedy has its funny moments, and they mostly spring from a patronizing attitude towards blue collar layabouts–just dig that scene with the blacklight. However, the relationship between the rival brothers is almost touching at times. How this curious mix will play is a mystery, but if anybody can make it work, it’s Norton. With Keri Russell.